In Mali, women’s eyesight problems are often relegated to the background for many reasons. They are more uninformed because of high levels of illiteracy, they do not have access to family financial resources for travel or treatment costs, and since they alone take care of household and family chores, they do not have support if they need to recover from an intervention. One of the main objectives of Eyes of the world is to reduce these barriers so that women can access eye care services and do not suffer from totally avoidable blindness.
One of the projects carried out to facilitate their autonomy is the allocation of micro-credits, an initiative that is proving very successful. Eyes of the world allocates funds to very vulnerable women in the Mopti region so that they can carry out income-generating activities to cover their needs and take care of their eye health. This project relies on the collaboration of the women of the CAFO in each village and makes it possible to set up businesses in street vending, livestock breeding, fabric dyeing, soap making, etc. Activities that enable them to improve their living conditions.
To complement this support, additional training is also provided. In the latest Bandariaga and Bankass workshops, 36 women received training in fund management and 20 received business training. These skills help them to improve their businesses and increase their resources.
All these efforts to get women to attend eye care services are showing results. Proof of this is that in the last medical-surgical commissions coordinated by Eyes of the world in the Bankass and Koro health centres, the number of women who received surgery was higher: 81 women and 67 men underwent cataract surgery.
This Eyes of Mali project is supported by the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa.
